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Bringing down the house with dark, Poe-etic terror
There are so many skillful artists working in the movie industry today. Recent years of groundbreaking technological advances have allowed them to have all kinds of wonderful equipment and advanced tools at their disposal. Being able to create practically any vision on celluloid, they have the prerequisites for making narrative and breathtaking imagery form a synthesis. But imagine giving a 5-year-old kid a free pass to the world's largest Toys R Us and without restraints, do you honestly think he's going to pick just one toy and be content with that? Get real, - he's going to raid the whole store and play with everything. It's something along those lines that has happened to the horror genre over the last twenty years or so.
Film makers seem to have grown so obsessed with what's actually possible, letting special effects become the center of attention instead of having them aid and enhance the stories. And now, left behind in the process are the most basic and important rules behind the successes of the greatest classics: Subtlety, ambience and pure storytelling. Constantly throwing cheap thrills at the audience at a breathless pace only has a fleeting effect, and in the long run it brings about nothing but irritation and frustration. Besides feeling subjected to relentless torture while watching the overblown and noisy ghost yarn What Lies Beneath and the even more painful travesty Hide and Seek, it also felt like I was watching two action movies, - and isn't that kind of defeating the purpose?
Being a true horror devotee, I've reached the sad conclusion that there are in fact very few contemporary directors who truly understand the genre. Take 'haunted house' movies, for instance, apart from the pristine The Others by Alejandro Amenábar and Stanley Kubrick's state of the art The Shining, the qualified offers in this particular category have been pretty slim since the early eighties. But go back to the late fifties / early sixties and you could take your pick: House on Haunted Hill, The Haunting and The Innocents, just to name a few of the best, but in the same league as these genre defining entries you can't leave out Roger Corman's deliciously cruel and wicked The Fall of the House of Usher from 1960.
Based upon the identically titled story by Edgar Allan Poe, Corman sets the right tone from the get-go when Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) arrives at the Usher mansion, a castle situated in the middle of a barren landscape and enveloped in a constant mist. He's come to collect Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey) to whom he's betrothed and who's going to be his future wife, but after persuading the reluctant butler Bristol (Harry Ellerbe) to let him inside, he immediately senses that something is completely off. And the first impression turns out to be true. Philip is soon met by some unexpected news when he's introduced to the master of the house, Roderick Usher (Vincent Price) who quite firmly states, that he isn't about to let his sister marry, let alone leave the house.
Because the Ushers are quite unlike everybody else. Descended from a family of thieves, impostors, harlots and murderers, Roderick believes that the dark legacy of sin passed on by his ancestors has infected Madeline's blood with malice as well as his own and also sharpened their senses to such an extent, that living has become agonizing and almost unbearable, gradually wearing them both down. Unwilling to take Roderick's words for gospel and accept that his bride-to-be is slowly dying, Philip chooses to stay around in the hope that he sooner or later will be able to convince the fragile, wistful Madeline to leave with him, deliberately ignoring many heedful warnings. As more sinister secrets are uncovered, will the guilt-ridden Roderick eventually succeed in preventing the tainted Usher bloodline from spreading any further here among the steadily crumbling castle walls that are finally giving in to generations of unspeakable evil?
Over a period of six years Roger Corman adapted seven of Poe's stories for the big screen. All of them were successful in their own right, and while the remarkable The Pit and the Pendulum may be the most widely known, The Fall of the House of Usher is arguably the best of the lot and the one that I prefer. Shot over a period of fifteen days on a $200,000 budget, there's nary a sign of a rushed production and Corman handles his material excellently, getting the most out of the lavish scenery as he stages one unforgettable, gloomy set piece after another. An air of dread and foreboding fills every single frame of the lush cinematography, thus carefully building the suspense that peaks in the truly horrifying, final twenty minutes, with some icy chills along the way - especially the surreal nightmare sequence creeps me out every time.
Contributing to the exquisite terrors in front of the camera are four absolutely superior talents. Mark Damon is very effective as the skeptical but increasingly desperate hero, Harry Ellerbe has some gripping scenes as the cordial and loyal butler and angelic Myrna Fahey is simply heartrending as the weakened Madeline who must suffer an incredibly terrible ordeal in the movie's last reel. Incidentally, bearing in mind that this was Fahey's last big screen appearance before she tragically surrendered to cancer thirteen years later - at the young age of 40 - adds an uncanny, elegiac dimension to her performance. And Vincent Price simply has the part of a lifetime. Bringing out the aristocratic and eccentric qualities of his character in a subdued, theatrical manner (with touches of pitch-black humor), he also has to convey a genuine sense of emotion and empathy, making his actions seem affectionate and gruesome at the same time. A memorable showcase from one of cinema's greatest legends.
Nowadays gothic horror has virtually become a lost art that fortunately can still be savored in its purest form when seeking out vintage movies made by the finest craftsmen in the business. A bona-fide, riveting masterpiece that just gets better with age, The Fall of the House of Usher is compulsory viewing for those who can appreciate sharp dialogue and gleefully macabre Poe-etry in motion. 
René Pedersen, November 14th, 2005
Picture: 7/10
MGM presents the movie in an anamorphically enhanced aspect ratio of 2.35:1. While never being excessive, there is, however, a fair amount of dust and nicks here and there as well as some shifting in the picture, and the sharpness isn't always quite up to scratch. On the other hand, the colors are bold and extremely vibrant, the blacks stay deep and strong throughout and on the whole The Fall of the House of Usher is indeed pleasing to the eyes and very watchable. Edge enhancement and compression artefacts didn't seem to be an issue.
Sound: 7/10
There are English and French sound options, both in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono - obviously for this test I went with the first. Very unexpectedly, the English track showed a surprisingly wide dynamic range (especially for a movie of this age) during some of the more powerful scenes with thunderstorms, rumbling mansion walls and music, where the sub-woofer really kicked in. The dialogue, although somewhat dark, was always audible and came through nice and clear without distortion of any kind ... as did the screams, guarantied to make your home cinema freeze over in less than a second. Enjoy.
Extras: 5/10
Director Roger Corman appears on a commentary track where he contributes with a lot of anecdotes about the making of the picture, e.g. his concerns about using and working with the CinemaScope format on an interior shot such as this, as well as offering a lot of insight into low budget filmmaking in general. Always intriguing and engaging to listen to, Corman is such an authority in his field that all the exciting and informative things he has to say easily make up for the few pauses that occur now and then. The only other extra is the original theatrical trailer (2.30 min).
Striking visuals, powerhouse performances and creepy atmosphere to spare - you name it: The Fall of the House of Usher is an exceptional achievement that has it all and no horrorcollection is complete without this classic cornerstone movie. If you haven't yet seen it, you're in for a wild ride!
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